


What's In A Name?

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: BAMF Stiles, Faeries - Freeform, Fluff, M/M, Magic, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Mystery, Reunions, Secret Admirer, Stalking, Sterek Bingo 2017, Stiles Stilinski's Name, Stiles Stilinski's Name is Mieczysław, Stiles is a faery magnet, clubs, faery Stiles, ish, stiles is something, unofficial dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 04:17:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10823577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Stiles knew he wasn't human, and to be honest, he had known for a long time, he just had never been able to bring himself to admit it before... but now highschool was over, and he was determined to find out what he was, no matter where the journey would take himAnd it took him alright, it took him across the country, gave him information about his family and town histories, reunited him with an old freind, and forced him into an even bigger mystery(And he also had to deal with that stalker who wanted to have his babies but that's not important right now)





	What's In A Name?

**Author's Note:**

> This is so so SO much longer than I originally intended, but I'm glad it turned out this way, I always love exploring magic!Stiles so the more of an opportunity I have to do it the better

"You're really sure about this?"

Stiles gave a quick nod, swallowing hard and taking a loud, forcibly steady breath, squeezing Scott's shoulder and giving him a tight smile

He wasn't nearly as confident as he was portraying, but he knew if he didn't act his way through it that Scott would know something was wrong

"I'm gonna miss you..." Scott said quietly, leaning in and giving Stiles a tight, tight hug

"I'll miss you too... but hey, we're gonna talk ALL the time ok? I'm serious, lots of phone calls, skype, all sorts of stuff... and I'll be back before you know it,"

Scott looked puzzled by that, and Stiles didn't really blame him, after all, they were supposed to be going off to college, that's where Scott thought he was going, why would they see eachother again soon? Stiles maybe shouldn't have said that

"I love you man," Stiles said quietly, swallowing hard as he took a hesitant step back

"Love you too," Scott replied, just as quietly, watching with what looked like a broken heart as Stiles slowly climbed into his jeep and shut the door

He held himself together just long enough to get out of Scott's sight, and then he broke down and cried for the entire first hour of his drive

 

~+~

 

It was definitely a trek trying to get to Georgia all the way from California

The drive took just over a week, partly due to all the stops he had to make to rest and get food, but he got there eventually

He felt kind of bad using his college fund for this trip, especially given that he was staying at an actual, real hotel instead of a crappy motel that he could easily end up getting killed at, but ... he had to do this (and not get killed in the process)

He had researched things long before he left, found a place that apparently specialized in care for supernatural creatures, and dissected the absolute hell out of it- he could probably write a dissertation on the place if he had to

After reading through every page on the site he eventually started noticing a pattern...

Every page had some combination of "The sun, the moon, the truth" on it, hidden in sentences or even pictures, and once he started noticing that pattern, he became certain that the place was legitimate

He had called the number that they had on the site and was immediately asked if he found them through "recommendations from a freind"

The answer, he figured, should probably be yes, so he dropped Derek's name- and then he dropped Noshiko's and even Satomi's, and....

And then he had an appointment scheduled like he was going to get a check-up and it was all obscenely weird

And yet, he found himself here in Atlanta, sitting outside of the "clinic" with his jeep running, and going over the choices in his head

He had driven all the way down here, gone through all of this...

He'd just be an idiot to back out now....

With a loud breath, he jerked the keys out of the ignition and got out of the car, hurrying to lock it before marching into the "clinic" and approaching the counter

"Hi, I'm Stiles, I'm here for a two o'clock,"

The receptionist glanced up from where he was working and Stiles almost bulked, because... the dude was kind of otherworldly in his appearance, gorgeous and huge and... he looked kind of like Jason Momoa...

"Dr. Clearwater will be right with you," he said with a soft, warm, smile, wich looked... a little strange on his tough, Alpha-male like face...

"Um, thanks," he said slowly, taking a step anxiously towards the waiting room

The Jason Momoa look-alike was staring at him, and then the guy freaking _winked_

Wich was honestly frightening because _why?_

Stiles knew it wasn't his looks that were attracting the dude...

Luckily he didn't have to dwell on it too long, he no more sat down before he heard someone call his name and he sprang back up again

"Umm... here, I'm right here," he said quietly, anxiously, swallowing tightly as he made his way towards the woman in scrubs standing by the entryway

"Come with me," she said with a soft smile, nodding towards the door leading to the back

Stiles was a little hesitant, but overall knew it was for the better, so he followed, no matter how anxious he was starting to get

It looked kind of like a really tiny doctor's office with the various rooms and the reception desk and how... clinical things seemed

He had been expecting something more like a New Age shop if he was being honest, but it wasn't uncomfortable, it didn't have all of the overly sterile smells and sensations that doctor's offices usually had

The room he was being lead to was plain in it's self, simple but warm with a single table in the middle that resembled a massage table

He didn't quite know what to make of this

"So ... how does this work?" he asked hesitantly as the door shut behind him

"Just lay down on the table, I'll do the rest, I'm Holly, by the way,"

Holly Clearwater... ofcourse, that was the name on the website

"Right... nice to meet you," he replied quietly, clearing his throat as he slowly laid down on the table

His heart was pounding a mile a minute and he was just relieved more than anything that Holly wasn't a werewolf- atleast... he was pretty sure she wasn't, if she was she'd probably be wincing at the sound

He felt almost like he was in a horror movie, like at any second she was going to lower some weird machine that was going to kill him or inject him with something weird or..... _something_

He should really stay away from creepy YouTube channels at this point...

Holly reached over to carefully take his hand, a quiet gasp leaving her throat as she flinched back

"Goodness... you're absolutely freezing, are you always this cold?"

"Um... not always, most of the time though..."

Ofcourse the fact that he was about to puke from anxiety didn't help, his skin always turned to ice when he was anxious

"I see... you have nothing to be nervous about, I promise, though it's no surprise really, faeries are often anxious creatures by nature,"

Stiles doubted he was a faery, but he wasn't going to say anything to that yet, let her do whatever she was going to do and figure out the rest later- that was the plan, atleast

The woman had her hands... kind of everywhere, a warm, pink glow emanating from her palms as they pressed against his face, over his chest, on his arms and hands and on top of his stomach

It was a little hard to follow everything, she moved fast but it all felt somehow... achingly slow, like watching a race in slow motion

"Well, the good news is I know what you are," she said after a few moments, finally removing her hands from his body

"You do?" Stiles asked eagerly as he sat up, his heart practically leaping into his throat as he waited for her to start an explanation

"Have you ever heard of a Ghillie Dhu?"

"A what?"

"I guess that answers that question,"

Great, so apparently he was something he hadn't even heard of, that suited his luck

"A Ghillie Dhu is a type of woodland faery, they're very rare and don't generally do well with developing their powers, more than anything they act as nature spirits as opposed to actual faeries but... you're quite different, your powers are already developing at a breath-taking rate, I'm impressed,"

"Um... thank you?"

Though that still didn't exactly answer his question

Or, you know, at all

"I still don't know what any of this means though," he added a second later

"Well, it's... a little complicated, I wish I could tell you everything you needed to know here and now but that would take... ages and there's no way you could retain it all at once like that, so what I need you to do is find someone who's more educated on it, a mentor, a teacher, whatever you want to call them, they can help you from the comfort of your own home, help you with your powers, teach you anything and everything you need to know, I can give you a list of contacts in your area who can do that for you, you said you live in California right? Beacon Hills?"

Stiles swallowed, giving a small, tense nod as he thought of his next question carefully

"So ... what do I do in the mean time?"

"Well... that IS a bit of a loaded question, one thing I can assure you of is this: listening to your intuition will be the best course of action for you- always, your intuition is your best power and to ignore it would be a dangerous and foolish thing, but other than that... ideally you should really wait to make any big decisions until after you have someone to consult with, just try to take it easy, I know that isn't going to be.. well, easy, for you to do- especially with how your powers came to light- but it's in your best interest,"

"Right.... about that, why DID my powers only start showing up like this after the Hunt took me? I mean I guess I was seeing... shades of it before that but it really flared up after..."

"Simply, the Hunt is made up of Fae Folk, you were among your own kind and in a dimension not as heavily suppressing as the human realm, it finally allowed your power to break loose, like a fish being put in an ocean for the first time instead of a fishbowl,"

Stiles nodded slowly, licking his lips and raking his fingers through his hair

"So... I just wait then? Wait for this ... teacher to teach me how to use my magic?"

"Essentially, you should be able to get into contact with someone quickly, if you can't, come back in three days and I'll find someone for you, or you could always ask one of your freinds if they know anyone who could help,"

Stiles sucked on his lip this time, starting to fidget and wrinkling his nose

"They don't.... exactly... know about this,"

That, atleast, seemed to take Holly by surprise, a shocked look falling over her face as she took a slow, hesitant step forward

"You didn't tell them? Why not?"

He shrugged, making like he didn't know- he did know, he knew deep down, he just didn't know how to admit it

"You need to tell them, of all people they would be able to help you the most, one of the only surviving Hales, one of the most talented kitsune in the country, not to mention Alpha Satomi..."

"Yeaaaaah... I MAY have exaggerated a little bit about how much those are 'freinds'? I mean, Derek is, I guess, he's a pretty good one... but Satomi and Noshiko... I KNOW them but it isn't like I actually.. ever.. TALK to them?"

Holly didn't react as badly as Stiles thought she would, atleast, just gave a quiet nod of understanding and leaned against the wall

"Well, no matter, you should have someone atleast relatively in your area who will be able to help you,"

"Thanks," Stiles muttered back a little awkwardly, attention turning down to stare at the floor again

"Do you have any questions before you go?"

Yeah, about two billion, but he knew he needed to save most of those for whatever "teacher" he ended up with- apparently

"Is there any other advice you can give me about... all of this? Especially until I find this teacher you're so enthusiastic about? Besides the intuition thing I mean,"

"Well for one thing I would tell your freinds about your powers, if anyone can help you with this it would be them,"

Stiles let out a low sigh, chewing on the inside of his lip

"I'm serious Stiles, you need to tell them, they WILL find out sooner or later and it's better they find out sooner so that they can help you, second of all, never give out your real name,"

Stiles blinked, surprised at this one

"What? Why?"

"Our names hold power over us, you've heard the stories about selkies? How someone taking their skin enables them to control the selkie? It's much the same way for faeries, though instead of our skins controlling us it's our names, faeries often go by nicknames or fake names to avoid this, if someone has your name they can force you to do just about anything, don't give it to anyone, no matter how well you know them, especially not humans,"

"And how the hell am I supposed to manage THAT? What about legal documents!? I can't sign my nickname on my license, my lease, medical work, any court pappers..."

"Well, some faeries DO legally change their names, other than that just try to avoid having to sign for things as much as you can, you can learn to Glamour people, that's a skill often coming in handy in these situations, it would also aid you to never say your name out loud, only write it down when it comes to your real name, you said it was hard to pronounce right? That's why you gave me your nickname over the phone?"

"Yeah it's a Polish nightmare, unless you're fluent in Polish you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting it right,"

"Good, that can help you, aside from that I would say that you should avoid lots of stress, you're nineteen, so you just graduated highschool right? I'd suggest no high-stress careers, faeries are sensitive creatures with very potent magic and high-pressure careers such as law enforcement and emergency medicine have lead to some .... _unfortunate_ circumstances,"

"Are you kidding me? So what am I supposed to do? Bake cupcakes for a living?"

"That isn't my place to determine, I just don't want your powers getting away from you- especially when you're so new to them, Ghillie Dhu are especially sensitive souls and often have terrible break downs when faced with feelings of being endangered, that's one reason why they're so rare and certainly the main reason for why they often live in the woods alone, it's... often easier than dealing with human society,"

Stiles heaved a loud, heavy sigh and hung his head- because this information was clearly only getting _better_

"Anything else?"

"Mm... try to stay away from intoxicants, faeries have naturally addictive personalities, so things like drugs, alcohol, caffeine-"

_"Caffeine?"_

Holly paused, looking utterly unimpressed as she stared at him

"How much coffee do you drink Stiles?"

Truthfully, he couldn't even bring himself to be offended by that, even he knew it was.... _excessive_....

"Just try to stay away from things that inhibit your senses, besides the addiction, there's another reason to stay away from them, depending on what it is, intoxicants can either dull your power... or cause it to go haywire, and one is as bad as the other, wile it's obvious why having an uncontrollable, explosive power is a bad idea, the truth is that dulling your magic is just as dangerous, it could lead to some serious health concerns, and besides, the last thing we need is for the faery bloodline to dull even more,"

Stiles stared at her in confusion for a moment, tilting his head

"What do you mean?"

"I mean active faeries are hard to come by in this realm, we're well populated in the Faery Realm but here..."

"Why? And why not just go back to the Faery Realm then?"

Stiles was deciding _not_ to get hung up over the fact that a freaking _Faery Realm_ even existed, it was pretty much the LEAST of his problems right now

"Technically, all supernatural creatures could go to the Faery Realm, but if someone opened the door for you, told you it was paradise and that you could live there in peace, would you? Or would you have something holding you back, anchoring you here?"

He immediately thought of his dad and swallowed, hanging his head with a sensation of... guilt, almost

"Exactly, most of our people have anchors here too, but that doesn't mean we're just going to let the humans eradicate us, faeries are as prized to hunters as werewolves are and unlike werewolves we don't have the ability to transfer our genes to humans, so when our numbers go down they can't just pop back up, all we can do is breed the old-fashioned way, wich isn't a bad thing in it's own, we're VERY fertile thankfully, but ... having children doesn't mean the gift will transfer, take yourself for example, you come from a long line of faeries but you're the first one in three generations to actually show your powers,"

"My mom?" Stiles guessed quietly, swallowing tightly and staring up at Holly's puzzled face

"Oh... no, dear... your father,"

Stiles blinked, mouth opening and closing and- ....

_What?_

" _What?_ "

"Your father's side of the family has the faery gene you carry but it's been suppressed for generations, mostly due to alcohol but also due to a strong sense of disbeleif, just not even WANTING to believe... we're honestly lucky that your powers showed up at all, your bloodline is very strong but it's been so long since a Stilinski has shown their power..."

"Why? I mean... just because of booze and skepticism?" he asked quietly, now suddenly more invested than ever

This was no longer just learning about magic and Pixie Dust, but about his family.... his _dad_...

"Mostly yes, the last several generations haven't believed in their own powers- haven't WANTED to, purposely suppressed it, wich is unfortunately common amongst inner-species matings, the faery gene is frustrating because it's so hard to show up in people, unless you have two faeries mating, wich isn't a bad thing just... uncommon, as a general rule it's hard to find others in your own community so most of our kind mate with others, humans- who they often hide their own powers from, not to mention their children's- or other supernatural creatures like werewolves, who's genes often override the faery gene, just take the Hales for example, there was a faery in their line a few generations back but do you see any Hale children showing signs of magic? It isn't that it's not POSSIBLE, just... not COMMON, the faery must be of a truly grand strength for their genes to trump another supernatural's- especially a werewolf's- and even then it's only about half of the pregnancies-"

"How do you know all this?" he interrupted, starting to feel a suspicious clawing in his gut

"About my family, the Hales, ME? How... God, how do you...?"

Holly held up a finger, ducking out of the room for a moment

Stiles was tempted to follow her but his head was swimming, it was so overwelming- all of this information- that he felt like he was choking on it

And besides, he no more moved an inch before Holly was back, holding two very old looking, very large books

(Faery speed, apparently)

"This is a tome holding all of the information on the faeries currently alive in this country and their family histories, I encourage you to look through it, you'll find all of the information you need or want on bloodlines and family histories here," she said, holding up the thinner of the two

"I must warn you though, whatever you do, you MUSTN'T let a human near it, it IS cloaked so that it can't be seen by humans but the cloak will break if you let one touch it, if a human got ahold of this... it could be catastrophic,"

"Why? In what way?"

"Well, for one thing, it'd give any hunters- amateur or not- a perfect guide to track us down, and for another... this is one of the only copies we have, I mean we can't very well take them up to Office Depot and run off several hundred copies, these are all reproduced by magic but there are very few, there are CENTURIES of research in here Stiles, research that we likely won't be able to find again, this book is CRUCIAL to our people, to keep track of and help our kind, to prevent the gifted younglings like you from only developing their powers in times of crisis for example- and I do apologize for not contacting you myself, we just ... always assumed you would be like your father and the last two generations before him, that was our fault for assuming, but I digress, this book is immensely important to us... please care for it with your life,"

"You don't have to worry, I promise, nothing will happen to the book,"

"Good, now for this one... this one covers Beacon Hills, we try to keep records of all of the supernatural world, not just Fae Folk, but unfortunately that's gotten difficult since Laura Hale died, there are no other faeries in Beacon Hills- other than yourself and Miss Lydia Martin ofcourse- and so MUCH has happened over these last several years, it's been impossible to keep up with it all, and our poor record keepers really are stretched thin... so few people care to take on the job, given how much researching is involved, what few record keepers we have are VITAL to us to keep our community safe but they're overworked... sorry, my point is, you should be able to find the basic information about Beacon Hills in this one," she explained, handing him the heavier book

"Great, looks like I have a little light reading to do tonight," he said sarcastically, though he WAS sincerely appreciative of the books

"I think you'll enjoy them," Holly said with a teasing grin

"Right so... read these, make sure humans don't get them, take it easy, tell everyone my deep dark secret- wich kind of makes the second point moot- take a low stress job and basically live like a nun, that right?"

"No no, living like a nun isn't ... no," the faery said with a laugh, shaking her head as if Stiles had just said the most amusing thing ever

"We very much believe in indulging in the pleasures of life, it's just intoxicants we have a problem with, but there are plenty of other worldly pleasures, good food, good fiction, good sex.... we especially encourage the sex,"

"You and I both," Stiles huffed

He may not have been a virgin anymore but he was starting to feel like one recently, he and Malia really never had been that _active_ after the initial few weeks and since he broke up with her...

The last two years he had barely even felt like wanting sex anyway, but since coming back from The Wild Hunt he suddenly felt like a 16-year-old again, his libido jumping back to where it had been before he lost his V card

Talking to Holly now, ofcourse, that made sense, but it was still frustrating that he was alone and, well, frustrated

"Right," he finally said slowly

"I'll see what I can do, when do you want the books back?"

"How about... I'll see you in three days to return them and you can tell me how the search for the mentor goes then?"

Stiles' lips stretched up just a little, just slightly, as he nodded

"Yeah, sounds good to me,"

From there things were almost a blur

The pretty receptionist instructed him to sign out using his full name, he headed out and got on the right track to head back to the hotel, and the entire way his mind was just.... drowning in this, in all of this, and he didn't know what to do

He needed to clear his mind, to do something that would ACTUALLY distract him rather than just ATTEMPT to distract him, and when he thought about that, about distractions, he could only think of one thing that would really do the trick...

 

~+~

 

Admittedly, going to a club to release his stress may not have been the BEST idea, but it was kind of all he had for now

He was in an unfamiliar place and needed to just ... relax and breathe for a little wile, and this was the best place he could think of to do it

And yeah, that was a little weird considering that clubs were just giant pools of sweaty bodies grinding against eachother, loud music, and alcohol, but what could he say? Stiles had a weird sense of peace

He was standing in the middle of the dance floor now, trying to look less stiff than he felt, trying to let him get lost in the moment

There was an Adam Lambert song playing over the speakers and he could faintly hear the overly enthusiastic laughing of someone who had CLEARLY had way too much to drink, and he tried to concentrate on all of it, to let himself relax against the background, but it was no use

His stomach was tied up and his heart was pounding and he knew that he wasn't going to be able to get a break with dancing, he needed to calm down and relax a little, loosen up, so he started for the bar and hoped that would lend him a hand

He was tempted to get something with booze, just to spite the faery genes, but he knew that would be incredibly irresponsible

And not just in the "If this goes wrong my powers will blow up" kind of way either, but .. here he was in a foreign state where he knew no one, and trying to get back to his hotel room alone and drunk was probably not the smartest idea on Earth

Either way, maybe some soda or something would help him relax, so he climbed onto the bar stool and cleared his throat, glancing up at the bar-tender in front of him

"Hey uh... 'scuze me, what do you recommend that's non-alcoholic?"

When the bartender turned around, Stiles almost choked to death on his own spit

_**"Derek!?"** _

_"Stiles!?"_

For a long, tense moment, they were both silent, before Derek turned to the girl beside him and tapped her on the shoulder

"Ashley, can you take over for me for a second?"

"Huh? Oh sure! Take your time, we're not busy tonight," the other bartender said with a smile

Derek didn't waste an ounce of time, rushing out from behind the bar and grabbing Stiles' arm before dragging him off towards the back, pushing the back door open and gently guiding him out

"What are you doing here?" they asked in unison

A short beat passed before Stiles spoke again

"You first,"

Derek frowned, heaving a sigh and looking down at the ground

"I work here,"

"No kidding, I meant WHY do you work here?"

"To blend in, it's.. a bit of a long story, I'm here investigating a string of disappearances and I've been here for over four months so... eventually I decided I would look suspicious without a job, I wasn't exactly a golden example of discreet in Beacon Hills after all,"

"Disappearances? What disappearances?" Stiles asked with a frown

Because ofcourse, of-freaking-COURSE he would end up somewhere that was also facing some weird mystery, he couldn't just have a few days off to sort himself out

"It's a long story, why are YOU here?"

"That's an even longer story," Stiles huffed back

Derek was quiet for a moment before his shoulders finally sagged, eyes closing as he let out a long, low sigh

"We'll go somewhere and talk,"

"My hotel room? I can order room service,"

Derek gave a quick nod, though Stiles could tell that he looked somewhat... hesitant or maybe just surprised when Stiles said "hotel room", as if Derek had been expecting something different

And maybe he had been, maybe he had been expecting "dorm room" or something, that might make sense...

"Alright, I just need to get my shift covered, I'll be back in a second,"

Stiles nodded slowly, watching as his freind disappeared back into the club

Something about all of this was just ... starting to feel increasingly strange, increasingly wrong...

He just couldn't quite put his finger on what...

 

~+~

 

"So, you and Braeden didn't keep in contact then?"

"Not really, not after the first three months, she called me after she found the Desert Wolf but that was it, we just.. decided we were too different,"

"And you've been spending the last two years doing the investigating thing on your own?"

"Something like that, it was never really intentional but I keep hearing of things so..."

Stiles nodded slowly, shoving a couple of french fries in his mouth as he glanced up at the other man

"And you... just travel around?"

"Basically, Laura and I bought alot of real estate several years ago so I have homes and safe houses and apartments and such in all kinds of places,"

"And the job?"

Derek shrugged, biting into the pickle on his plate

"I used to tend bar in New York, Laura wanted us to be normal, to have lives, so... I decided to pick it up here too since I needed to spend a fair amount of time at the club, thought it would be less suspicious than just going in every night and never buying anything alcoholic or dancing with anyone, it's kind of easy as a werewolf, I can lift heavy bottles, make sure I have the right combinations by scent, don't mind working on my feet, and I can tell when someone has had too much or when something has been put in their drink and keep them out of dangerous situations,"

"Always the hero," Stiles smirked, biting into another fry

Derek snorted, rolling his eyes and glancing back up at Stiles

"Come on, your turn, why the HELL are you here?"

Stiles took a long, loud, deep breath and put his food down

The best way to do this was probably just to start from the beginning and come clean with it all- atleast... he hoped....

"So after you left we got attacked by these parascientists who resurrected a really old and dead werewolf who ended up possessing Liam's best freind- you remember him right? They also ended up inventing these chimeras wich ... ok, never mind, that's a long story, and this complete and utter CRAPGOBLIN Theo pitted Scott and I against eachother, got Liam to almost kill Scott and then Theo himself killed Scott, who came back to life right after thanks to some weird werewolf Alpha juju, he also got Lydia put in Eichen and she had a hole drilled into her head and had her banshee powers magnified, he basically caused us all a lifetime more of trauma, I killed a guy, Parrish is a hellhound, Kira's powers went crazy so she had to go live with Skinwalkers for a wile, The Wild Hunt tried to destroy our town and kidnapped me and wile I was there I started realizing that my occasional psychicness isn't really psychicness but it's actually magic so when the Hunt left and we graduated I told everybody I was enrolling in pre-FBI and came here to some weird magical clinic to figure out what the hell is wrong with me and now here we are, oh! And Liam has a werewolf girlfreind now, and Mason has a boyfreind, not that that matters to you since you don't know Mason but still,"

Derek was just... stunned, clearly, if the way his mouth was hanging open and the french fry he was holding still in his grip were any indication

"What? Too much?" he asked, tilting his head in confusion

Derek swallowed tightly, slowly putting his french fry down and taking a quiet breath

"I'm going back to Beacon Hills,"

Wait, what?

Stiles blinked, mouth falling open as he stared across at the werewolf, because that... wasn't what he had expected him to say

"Wait, what?"

"As soon as I'm done with what I'm doing here, I'm going back to Beacon Hills,"

"But... Der-"

"You aren't going to talk me out of it Stiles, part of why I left in the first place was because I thought I was doing too much harm there, attracting problems, but what you're telling me... my leaving only made things worse, I should have been there to help,"

"Derek you _got OUT_! You got away from that freaking hellmouth-"

"And it wasn't my place to, I need to go back and help keep the town safe, especially because you guys have graduated now, who's still there besides Liam and his freinds?"

Stiles swallowed, eyes turning downcast

Technically Malia was still there but he understood what Derek meant, and he knew logically that she couldn't hold things up on her own

"I'm not going to argue, I'm going back as soon as I'm done here,"

Stiles heaved a sigh, giving a slow nod and rubbing the back of his neck

"Then I'll stay here until you go back, I need to see that woman at the clinic again in a few days anyhow,"

It wasn't that he was disappointed that Derek would be back in town- hell he was ELATED about that- but...

He couldn't help feeling guilty and anxious, Derek had gotten out of that mess and he looked better and softer and a little bit happier than ever, the thought of him going back and being swept up in so much torment again... it _killed_ Stiles inside

But he understood why Derek was doing it too, part of the reason was the same as the reason Stiles was staying

"That's fine, you can stay with me so you don't have to pay for the hotel," he agreed, finally going back to his food as Stiles reached over to the nightstand and grabbed his coke

(So they were eating on the bed, Stiles could afford a hotel room- not a BIG hotel room, they were conserving space)

"You said you were at some kind of clinic?"

That brought the faery's- ugh, he still couldn't believe he was technically a _faery_ \- attention back, causing him to snap his fingers and wipe his hands on a napkin before leaning over to grab the pappers he had printed out from his backpack

"Yeah, this place, I dropped your name and Satomi's and Mrs. Yukimura's and she was happy to see me, she apparently knows of your family pretty well- well she knows everything pretty well I guess..."

Derek took the pappers gently, barely glancing at them before handing them back

"Holly Clearwater, yeah, she's the person who called me down here to begin with,"

"She is?"

The werewolf gave a nod, sighing and wiping his hands as well

"The disappearances I told you about... all of them are faeries, Miss Clearwater said she had started noticing some of her patients going missing and asked me to come check it out, there have been no less than a dozen faery vanishings in the last few months,"

"Hell...."

"I know,"

"So do you have any leads?"

"The club I work at, alot of them seem to happen there but not all,"

Stiles nodded slowly as he took that into consideration, there probably wasn't alot he could do with that information, but he could offer to help anyway

"Well, I have nothing to do really, how about I help you out? Give me the info about the missing people and I'll see what I can do, researching and theorizing always was my one strong suit,"

Derek snorted, going back to his food

"You have alot of strong suits... but researching and theorizing always was one of the best, wich reminds me, you said you came here to find out what you are, did you find out?"

"Uh... yeah, yeah... ever hear of a Ghillie Dhu?" he asked, huffing a short, quiet sigh as he glanced up at the werewolf

Derek looked _way_ too amused all of a sudden

"You mean the faery who unintentionally started the modern concept of the Toothfairy?"

Stiles went pale, mouth dropping open with fright as he stared at his companion

Because... seriously... he can't be serious can he?

"Tell me you're joking,"

"Nope, one of the legends about Ghillie Dhu is that they would take the fallen teeth of children to use in order to make protection spells and charms to cast over those children, long story short, those legends grew into legends about the tooth fairy,"

So... that maybe was a little more flattering than Stiles had expected, but it didn't make it any different that he was still descended from a freaking Tooth Fairy

"Seriously, what the hell is my life?"

 

~+~

 

When Stiles woke up, he was outside, wich was, you know, immediately alarming

He sat up immediately, heart pounding as he looked around, but unfortunately all he saw were trees, grass, the usual for wooded areas...

He swallowed slightly, licking his lips

The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in Derek's guest room, now here he was in the woods, great, that's... that's just fantastic

"Ah, so you're awake,"

Stiles jerked his head up, heart pounding as he stared at the owner of the voice

"You're that receptionist from yesterday," he frowned

Sure enough, the hot guy who had taken down his information was standing in front of him, looking ... a strange cross between cocky and happy

"I am indeed,"

"Ok, where the hell am I and why the hell am I here?"

"I brought you here ofcourse, you're near my home, I was going to take you into my house but I thought perhaps you may be uncomfortable with that,"

Stiles narrowed his eyes, slowly standing up and brushing himself off

"Ok... and why did you bring me here?"

"Because, you're going to be my bride,"

And this is the moment when Stiles decides he should just give up on everything and go live in a cave somewhere because _seriously!?_

"Excuse me?"

"Oh... would you prefer 'groom'? Pronouns are often fluid in faery culture, I forgot that you were mostly raised by humans,"

"Ok, listen Gaston-"

"Call me Markos, please,"

"... _Markos_ , I am not going to marry you,"

That seemed to throw the guy off, a look of confusion on his face as he slowly tilted his head to the side

"But... why not?"

"Why should I?! We JUST. MET. Why would you even WANT to marry me?"

Markos seemed even more perplexed by this, and in the back of his mind, Stiles wondered if that wasn't because he couldn't think of a reason

"Well you're... outrageously smart, kind, warm, quick-witted, powerfull, stronger in both mind and body- not to mention in magic- than anyone I've ever met, and ... you're really quite gorgeous,"

Well that was unexpected

"Ok but... why would you want to marry someone you just met? Why not just ask me out first instead of jumping straight to marriage?"

"I see... so you want courtship first, very well, I'm not at all opposed to that,"

"It isn't- ... no, no, you missed my point, why would you want to marry someone you don't even know? Isn't the point of marriage... you know, love?"

"Often yes, but not the only reason,"

"So then your reason would be...?"

"You're a Ghillie Dhu, and a strong one at that, do you have any idea how incredibly rare that is? We would have the most EXCEPTIONAL children-!"

"Woah woah back up, CHILDREN?"

"You ... don't want children?"

The guy sounded like Stiles had just admitted to hating puppies

"Well I mean... I do, yeah... but that's not the point! Why-.... just... WHAT!?"

Finally, Markos seemed to understand that they were on two totally different plains of understanding here

"You don't understand, do you?"

Stiles just raised his eyebrows, clearly unamused

"Faery numbers in this realm are down, as I'm sure you were informed, it's... getting quite difficult for us to keep our population up here in this realm, we need all of the help we can get and you, a powerfull, powerfull faery, could do great wonders to help the population, I am an Oak Tree faery, as virile and strong as they come, together, you and I could truly help our species,"

Stiles narrowed his eyes, lips pressing into a thin line as he stared forward at the other man

"Ok Pal, this is where I'm getting tripped up here, you keep talking as if we could, you know, actually have children together, biologically, just the two of us, I don't know how you plan on doing that considering we're both _male_..."

Markos just gave a slight chuckle, fond in a way that made Stiles feel like he was missing out on a joke

"Oh my... you really know little of our world hm? Fear not, faery magic can do a great many things,"

Well, Stiles was officially afraid to find out what the hell THAT meant

Just as he was getting ready to ... seek another explanation (or, you know, freak the hell out) he heard the most beautifull sound he had ever heard

_"Stiles!!"_

"Derek!!" Stiles screamed back excitedly, scurrying away and crashing into Derek's body with a loud thud, even managing to nock a grunt out of the werewolf

Markos didn't seem especially pleased by this development, his face clearly scrunching up with displeasure as he stared at the scene that the two of them were making

"I see.... are you already mated then? Promised?"

"What?" Derek asked in confusion, tilting his head to the side

"I might as well be," Stiles replied with a huff, because that may be the only way to keep this guy off of him

That finally seemed to trigger something in the Oak Tree faery, given that he looked down and made no effort at going towards the Ghillie Dhu

"I see, then I'm sorry for causing you discomfort," he said a bit slowly, taking a step towards Stiles and taking his hand

Stiles cringed as Markos raised his hand and gave it a kiss

"I respect that you've already fallen for another, but if circumstances should ever change and you wish to explore another relationship, all you have to do is call my name,"

Stiles jerked his hand back, wrinkling his nose as if he had just been spit on by a goat, and wiping his hand on his shirt

"Yeah, I don't see that ever happening but thanks anyway,"

With that, Stiles grabbed Derek's hand, hurrying out of the woods with him as fast as he could

 

~+~

 

"I don't even know how I got out there but to put it mildly I'm not happy with it,"

"I don't blame you," Derek said simply, sipping on his drink

He had been nice enough to bring Stiles out to brunch in order to ease his troubled mind- well, technically, because Stiles kept complaining about food, but still- so here they were, at some quaint little place eating on the patio

It was... weird

Weirdly _nice_

"And I mean, what IS this thing about marrying someone you don't even know anyway? Is that normal for faeries?"

"Mm, I don't really know, I don't know faery culture all that well, but marrying for breeding purposes isn't as crazy as it sounds in the supernatural realm- though, that's more of an arranged marriage sort of thing, less of a 'Marry the first person you see' sort of thing,"

Stiles paused, fork half way through an omelette as he glared at Derek, lips in a tight line

"Ok, why the HELL do people keep mentioning that to me?"

Derek blinked, clearly confused as he slowly tilted his head, clearly not understanding what had Stiles so perturbed

"Mentioning wha-?"

"The breeding thing! You act like two men can actually have their own babies! I mean, what, can faeries transfer their powers to adopted babies or something? Oh- .... oh is that how it works? We can just like... I don't know... transfer our powers into our adopted kids or...? But wait... Holly said faeries can't transfer powers to humans..."

Derek's mouth opened slightly, wincing a little

"Um-"

"Excuse me?"

Derek was- much to his own releif- cut off by the waitress, who stepped up towards them with a bouquet of flowers

"Someone dropped these off for you," she said, handing the bouquet to Stiles

Stiles just ... stared for a minute, completely thrown off and taken aback by this before slowly reaching out to read the little card in the top of the bouquet

"Oh my God.... _Shakespere_?! He's freaking quoting Shakespere!?"

"You don't like Shakespeare?" Derek asked dryly, smirking slightly at him

"Ok first, no I don't like Shakespeare, I prefer Poe, second of all, this guy just won't quit... and apparently he's WATCHING me, how else would he know I'm here!?"

"Stiles, calm down, take a breath, I'm sure he just used faery magic to send them to you rather than actually watching you... wich, may not sound much better but..."

The faery huffed, slouching down a little in his seat and biting the inside of his lip

Derek, apparently taking pity on him, allowed his shoulders to relax and leaned forward a little over the table

"Hey..... you know, we ARE in Atlanta, why not make the most of things wile we're here?"

Stiles glanced up, an eyebrows raised as he stared across at the other man

"What did you have in mind?"

Derek's eyes glimmered with a hint of mischeif, lips quirking into even more of a grin

"It's hard to feel bad when you're looking at baby pandas,"

 

~+~

 

Apparently a zoo date with Derek Hale was even better than Stiles had ever dreamed, as a matter of fact, it was kind of outrageously incredible

"Oh my God they're SO. CUTE!"

"Can you believe these are the sixth and seventh babies to be born here?"

"Seriously?"

"And the _second_ set of twins,"

Stiles paused, a hard look on his face as he stared at the werewolf

"You have GOT to be kidding me! Panda twins almost never happen!"

"I guess they call Atlanta 'the baby factory' for more than one reason huh?" Derek snickered back

"Wait a second, why the HELL do they call it that to begin with?"

"Because one of the hospitals here is the best in the country for infant care and has the highest birth rate per year, it's almost ironic that the zoo can essentially compete,"

Stiles just snorted, taking a sip of his coke as he turned back to watching the pandas, eyes warm as he watched one of the cubs climb into a hammock and paw at it

"Do you think... if humans ever found out about, you know, _us_ on a large scale... they'd try to put us in a zoo too?" he asked after a moment

"Absolutely, after they're done trying to kill us that is, that's part of why we don't tell them,"

Stiles just nodded, going quiet for a few moments and chewing on his straw

"Is it terrible that I'm like... blatantly resisting the idea of marrying another faery even though the population in the human realm is apparently low? I mean, isn't that the equivalent to the panda here suddenly holding up an 'on strike' sign?"

Derek paused, eyebrows raising as he turned his attention towards the other man

"Well, first of all, last I checked faeries were aware of the problem, and I'm pretty sure if they ever need human interference to get their population back up they'll get it themselves, second of all, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think pandas have marriages or take into consideration things like falling in love before they breed together, and third of all, you aren't a panda,"

"I guess... I just... I don't know, I feel RESPONSIBLE all of a sudden, like this freaking weight is on MY shoulders, ugh.... that stupid guy got into my head,"

"Don't let him, it isn't your responsibility to maintain your species Stiles, especially one you didn't even know about until yesterday, and even if it WAS, you still shouldn't waste your life on something you don't sincerely want- be it a marriage or a job or a relationship of any kind... you just need to be HAPPY, nature will find a way to balance out, it always does, and unlike some of the creatures that have ended up on the extinct list before, faeries are ancient and trust me when I say they've been through worse than a little dip in population and only in the human realm- wich like I said, is _just_ in the human realm, I don't know much about faeries, but from what I DO know, the faery realm is apparently pretty stuffed, last I heard they put rabbits to shame,"

Well, that certainly would explain Stiles' overactive sex drive.... (even better than before)

"Huh," he muttered, taking another sip of his coke and grinning as the second panda cub came to join her sibling in the hammock

"You know... my dad was human,"

That stopped Stiles in his tracks, causing him to turn his attention back towards Derek

"My mother was a very strong Alpha, everyone expected her to marry another strong Alpha or at the very least a beta from her own pack, when she brought home my dad people were... less than pleased, my family comes from a very long line of wolves, dating back centuries, and there hadn't been a human in the mix for three generations, everyone worried that the strong Hale genes would suddenly be swallowed up by my father's human genes, or at the very least watered down, creating weak wolves, if not human offspring, but my mother didn't care, she married him anyway,"

Breifly, Stiles wondered if Derek even knew about the faery genes that had apparently snuck into his bloodline...

"And they were wrong right? The three of you... you're all strong wolves, strongest I've ever seen, well I mean, I never knew Laura but... easy to assume,"

Derek clearly hadn't been expecting that, the look of surprise on his face was evidence of that much, but his expression softened after a moment, head bowing shyly as he took Stiles' hand and started leading him out, the panda exhibit was starting to fill up with people- no place to have this conversation, and they could go back later if Stiles wanted to

"They were wrong, yes, see? Nature finds a way, and genes aren't everything, you're strong Stiles, incredibly so, I'm sure no matter who you marry, your kids will inherit that,"

Stiles gave a soft smile of his own, cheeks flushing red as he leaned into Derek's side, walking along with him

"Thanks..."

 

~+~

 

"Where are we going after this?"

"I think the Bush Dogs are next," Derek mused, looking at the map- because _ofcourse_ Derek Hale was the kind of person to look at a park map instead of going where the wind takes him-

"Sounds right,"

Like Stiles would know

At current, they were in the panda-themed gift shop (because if anyone ever thought Atlanta WOULDN'T capitalize on their biggest international attraction with an entirely separate gift shop all to it's self, they would be terribly, terribly wrong) shamelessly overpaying for panda-themed merchandise

So far Stiles was holding onto a plush baby panda for dear life, a red hoodie with a panda on it, and was goading Derek into buying a pink panda t-shirt- because apparently he _could_

"How much do you think that is?"

Derek's gaze shifted away from the ornament he was looking at and stared up at the very top of the highest shelving unit where an enormous stuffed panda- easily bigger than he was- lay intimidatingly

"If it's less than $500 I'll buy it for you," he noted mockingly

Between the size of that thing and the prices in the gift shop he had a very hard time believing it wasn't ATLEAST $500....

(But with that being said, he had no intention of even asking, the chance of Stiles trying to take him up on that mock bet was too high and frankly, Derek wasn't even sure he could fit it in his car...)

"Oh my GOD I found Scott's name!"

Apparently he didn't have to worry- Stiles had already moved on

"And Lydia's!"

Derek turned around, staring with a curious expression at the little personalized panda magnets Stiles was holding up- sure enough "Scott" and "Lydia" were clearly printed on them

"Help me find the others, I'm gonna need 'em when I go back and tell them about, you know, _this_ ,"

"Stiles, they'll understand," Derek said gently, though he immediately set to work looking through the magnets anyway, keeping an especially close eye out for the sheriff's name- for you know, _reasons_

"No, Derek, they won't, I LIED to them- I lied BIG time, I mean the magic thing is already going to be hard enough to explain but I dipped into my college fund to come down here all alone after telling them that I was going to be in the FBI and hiding this from them for months, I'll be lucky if they EVER forgive me,"

Derek frowned, slowly taking a "Malia" magnet off of the rack as his eyes flicked up to catch the faery's

"I still can't believe they bought 'pre-FBI' as being a thing.... but they'll forgive you Stiles, I know that much,"

"... You really, really think so?" Stiles asked quietly, timidly even, as his own eyes shifted up to meet Derek's

"I know so," he promised, handing over the magnet and resuming the search for one with "John" on it

"Though, you should probably get t-shirts too, just to be sure,"

 

~+~

 

"I'm telling you Derek, I have chills- CHILLS! I still can't believe the tiger came right up to us!"

"Maybe she sensed a kindred spirit," Derek teased

Honestly, he was just happy to see Stiles happy, he knew that sounded corny but it was true

Since he reconnected with Stiles yesterday the faery had been so anxious and gloomy and generally unwell, and from everything Stiles told him (with eventual expansion on the initial story) he couldn't blame him, Stiles had been through nothing but pure hell over the last year, but it was still nice to see him unburdened again

"Maybe, I just... wow, just WOW, that place is amazing and we have GOT to come back eventually,"

"I'm sure we will," Derek promised with a smile, stepping out of the car right behind Stiles as the younger man headed towards the front door, pausing outside of it and frowning as he stared down at a basket of muffins on the step

"I don't believe this.... Derek! Look!"

Sure enough, the muffins had a card attached addressed only with a Shakespeare verse, as if that were some sort of signature

"You'd better take it inside anyway, faeries find rejecting a gift to be incredibly insulting, you've seen Sleeping Beauty right?"

"That was an invitation,"

"But it's the same principal for gifts, and it's better if you don't risk it,"

Stiles grumbled, shifting his goodie bags from the zoo into one arm as he reached down and reluctantly picked up the muffin basket, waiting for Derek to open the door

Clearly the good mood was spoiled.... but it didn't have to be, not entirely atleast

"Hey... Stiles?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you feel about the world's largest aquarium?"

 

~+~

 

Stiles had gone to the club with Derek that night, stayed at the bar, stayed vigilant, but the culprit didn't strike

The next morning when they got up, Stiles found a handmade bracelet on the kitchen counter with another card- this one containing both a verse and a message: _"Meet me at sundown at the lake"_

Well, Stiles was absolutely not going to do THAT

He was starting to get aggravated with this guy, but Derek was trying to keep him calm, and to be fair, looking at ocean life was doing the trick

Stiles had always been an animal person, and between the calming effect of looking at the tropical fish and the simple joy of some of the cuter animals like otters, sea lions, and dolphins, the aquarium seemed to be working pretty well, and he couldn't help but feel like this was more than just a little outing between freinds, if he was being honest...

"Oh my God Derek LOOK! It's your name! Your name on a coke!"

"And you made me buy a magnet with my name on it yesterday too, what's your point?"

Stiles took the coke out of the refrigerator, a smirk plastered to his face as he waved it in front of Derek's face

"My point is, we're keeping the bottle, do you know how awesome these things are? Man Scott and I spent two years looking before we finally found one with his name..."

"Fascinating, but I'm not interested, I'll drink it because it's there but I'm not hoarding the bottle,"

"Pft, leave it to someone with a common name to not appreciate how cool this is, do you have any idea how much I'd pay to get something with MY name on it even ONCE? A pencil, a coke, a magnet, I don't care, just... SOMETHING, hell it doesn't even have to be my real name, my nickname will do fine, but NOPE, I even tried to order a custom coke from the website once and guess what? They don't recognize my name as a legitimate name so they wouldn't accept it!"

Derek couldn't help feeling sympathetic, he DID have a somewhat common name and had never really been interested in having his name on anything at any point in his life- partly for that reason

But Stiles had a point, and the more Derek thought about it, the more he realized that it wasn't about the coke or the magnet or whatever, it was about the feeling of inclusion- a feeling Stiles had never experienced

It must have always been disheartening to see everyone's name but your own floating around, and clearly this meant something to Stiles, wich was honestly all the motivation he needed to take the bottle from him and set it in front of the cash register

"Fine, we'll keep the bottle, but the auditorium doesn't allow drinks so you'd better finish it before the dolphin show starts in an hour,"

Stiles snorted, leaning against the counter and smirking at the wolf

"Do you even know who you're talking to? I once polished off a Big Gulp in twenty minutes, trust me, I've got this,"

 

~+~

 

"Ok, you now officially have bought everyone a personalized panda magnet, and a personalized dolphin keychain, I think you have enough now to win back their approval,"

Stiles just snorted and rolled his eyes, clearly in disagreement

"I could buy them a parade of personalized corvets and it STILL wouldn't be enough, I lied to them BIG time dude,"

Derek stared at him in silence for a few moments, shoulders sagging and eyes flicking down

"You really do believe that don't you?"

"That I told an enormous lie? Yeah, I DEFINITELY believe it,"

"No no, about- ..... you really believe they won't forgive you?"

Stiles shrugged, getting out of the car with Derek following close behind

"You know how they are, especially Scott and my dad, and trust me, you haven't even seen the worst of it,"

"Yes, Stiles, I know how they are, especially Scott and your dad and they LOVE you, they love you more than I could ever put into words, there's no way they would ... dessert you or abandon you or-"

"Wouldn't they?"

"No, Stiles, they wouldn't, I can say that with certainty," Derek replied firmly

It was kind of frightening to know that Stiles really believed this, but not entirely surprising if he was being honest

"I mean it, please, take my word for this,"

Stiles stared at him for a long, long moment, finally heaving a sigh and leaning back

"Whatever you say, I'm not discounting you I just... don't know why you're so insistent,"

"Can you just trust me?"

"Do I have a choice?" Stiles smirked back, sliding out of the car with ease and stretching slightly

"Not by much," Derek teased in return as he slid out of the car as well

Stiles just rolled his eyes, shoving him playfully as he headed up towards the front door

"Well, I'll think it over, I'm gonna take a bath before dinner, I read faeries like baths,"

"I think you're referring to milk baths," Derek noted, opening the door for him

"Well.... I'll start with water, if it works out, we'll move on to milk," Stiles winked back before heading up the stairs

Derek's lips quirked up slightly before he headed to the stove, getting started on cooking

 

~+~

 

Usually, Stiles didn't like baths

It was for a combination of reasons, from the discomfort of not being able to stretch out in it (freaking long legs...) to the fact that he just didn't usually have the patience for it, but admittedly, he was actually kind of enjoying the peace of it, the calmness of just being able to relax and soak in the hot water

It was peacefull, wich is not something he ever expected

He took a deep breath, eyes falling shut as he leaned back in the tub and let his feet rest against the faucet, feeling oddly tranquil as the muscles rippled under his skin

"Man if I only had a box of chocolate right now," he muttered to himself, fingers flexing and arms stretching out when his fingers suddenly brushed against something- something _fabric_

His eyes snapped open, heart racing as he bolted up- his foot banged against the faucet and he'd have to remember to scream about that later- and looked around

There, sitting right next to him on the floor by the bath, was a heart-shaped box with a ribbon around it...

A box of chocolate, if the label was correct

"Derek?" he called out anxiously, his heart nearly in his throat as he instinctively closed his legs and leaned a little more forward

"Derek?" he repeated, only a little louder now, but it was more than loud enough for the werewolf to have heard if he had been just outside of the bathroom like Stiles prayed he was...

A prayer that went unanswered, apparently, when no one responded

Wasting no time, Stiles practically raced out of the bath, grabbing a towel from the rack on his opposite side and hurrying to tie it around his waist before rushing out of the bathroom and down the stairs

He didn't care that he was soaking Derek's carpet or that he was freezing from the sudden cool air that slammed into his body against the warm steam of the bathroom, he was freaking DONE!

"DEREK!!!"

The werewolf looked up from where he had been chopping vegetables, eyebrows raised and mouth slightly open

"Stiles-?"

"He's watching me!!"

"What!?"

Stiles slid as he stumbled into the kitchen, nearly smashing his head against the edge of the counter as Derek hurried to catch him, gripping his arm and keeping him steady

"He's watching me Derek! LISTENING to me! I'm done, I am freaking DONE! Oh my GOD!"

"Stiles, take a breath, what the HELL are you talking about?" Derek asked, trying to be as calm as possible as he placed his hands on Stiles' shoulders

"I'm talking about that freaking FREAK of a faery! He's spying on me!! He was spying on me in the bath!!"

"Stiles, how-"

"I was taking a bath and I was just sitting there and I went 'I wish I had some chocolate' all jokingly and when I turned around there it was! He's spying on me Derek!!"

"Ok ok, just take a breath-"

"I want to confront him,"

"And we will, just... go dry off, put some clothes on, we'll go right now ok?"

Stiles swallowed tightly, giving a slight nod as he started slowly back up the stairs, but Derek could see he didn't feel quite right about this

Hell, even Derek _himself_ felt like there was something wrong about it, something they weren't seeing, but now wasn't the time to figure it out

 

~+~

 

Stiles stormed into the clinic like an angry soccer mom approaching a coach

"Mr. Stilinski! So good to see you back, I wasn't expecting you,"

And Stiles wasn't expecting _that_

The only one there was a receptionist, but not Markos- rather, this one was a girl, probably still a faery if the otherworldly beauty had anything to say about it, with dark hair and pale skin

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting to be here either, and who are you?"

"Oh! I'm Lila-"

"Lila, hi, where's Markos?"

The girl blinked in surprise, mouth opening slightly

"O-Oh um, he isn't here right now, I mean we're about to close so he left, but you know, I could always help you if you-"

"No, I just... do you know where he is? I just need to talk to him,"

"Um... well, I think he said he was going to be at the Peach Club later tonight,"

"Thanks," Stiles replied curtly, wasting no time in rushing back out of the clinic and heading back to the car

"No luck?" Derek guessed

Stiles grumbled, shaking his head and wrinkling his nose

"No, but I have an idea of where he is,"

"You do? Where?"

"Let's just say I feel like clubbing all of a sudden,"

 

~+~

 

"Do you have any idea what you're even going to do once you find him?" Derek asked as he wiped down the bar

"Yeah, I'm going to tell him to stop freaking stalking me," Stiles huffed back, taking a long, loud sip of his mocktail and huffing in frustration

"I just advise you to keep your guard up, you have no idea what this guy's powers are like, how strong he may or may not be,"

"I know I know," Stiles grumbled back, running his fingers through his hair and trying to keep calm as Derek had suggested

He figured maybe the best thing to do in this situation would be to distract himself, maybe just... focus on something else, like Derek maybe

"So... do you like doing this? You know, the bar tending stuff?"

Derek shrugged, setting out a few shot-glasses that had been requested by someone a few stools away from Stiles

"Depends on how you define 'like', would I do it as a hobby? No, but... it's good for a job, better than most, I rarely have a bad time so that's good enough,"

"Wow, such high standards, how do you ever expect to ACTUALLY make something of yourself in this world if you hold such high standards?" he teased back

"Hm, that sounds hauntingly like it's been said to you before," Derek noted as he squirted tequila into the glasses

"Oh yeah, I had a teacher who was all bitter because my ideal job was one that would let me be home with my family alot but still making enough money to support us easily- ofcourse, my fifth-grader self couldn't put it that eloquently but still,"

"If it makes you feel any better, your ideal isn't as out there as your fifth grade teacher seems to believe,"

"You think so?" Stiles asked with surprise, because if that was the case, then Derek must have some kind of secret insider knowledge that he doesn't...

"I think so, depending," Derek answered vaguely

Ofcourse, unfortunately, he didn't get a chance to question the vagueness of that statement when he suddenly caught a glimpse across the club of familiar long hair

"There he is!" he shouted, jumping off of the stool and racing through the club- as fast as one COULD race through a club that is-

"Stiles wait-!"

Ofcourse, Stiles didn't wait, he just kept going, determined to confront the creep who had been stalking him, no matter how dangerous that might be

He grabbed the man's shoulder, forcing him to turn around... and stumbling backwards

It wasn't the faery

"Sorry, sorry!" he said quickly, taking another step back and bumping into someone else, he spun around, apologizing again to the person behind him

He turned again, feeling his heart sink as he realized that he had wandered into a crowd of people- a crowd that was on the other side of the club from the bar, for that matter

He cursed under his breath with frustration, starting to attempt pushing through the crowd again, only to hear a soft, melodic voice calling his name

Calling his name in some... creepy, sing-song way that just chilled him to the bone

He swallowed tightly, turning around and frowning deeply

He recognized the woman calling his name, he had just seen her a few hours ago....

"Who are you?"

"I told you, my name is Lila," the woman replied with a thin smirk

"No I mean... who the _hell_ are you? You followed me here, why? What do you want?"

"How do you know I followed you? Maybe I came to meet Markos, he's my coworker after all,"

Stiles' eyes swept around the club, shoulders tensing a little more as he took a step closer to her

"Markos isn't here though... is he?"

"Well aren't you perceptive? To be expected of a Ghillie Dhu, one of the most _sensitive_ types of faery,"

Stiles wrinkled his nose, anger starting to rise in his blood, things were starting to fall into place...

"And let me guess, he isn't the one that's been stalking me... is he?"

"'Stalking you'? That's such a crude term, I've been COURTING you,"

"By following me, spying on me, and leaving me gifts!? You couldn't have just asked me out!?"

"That never seems to work, so I had to take the next step," she huffed back, flicking her long brunette hair over her shoulder

"It never-...? You're the one who's been taking the other faeries aren't you? Did you take Markos too?"

"Wow, I have to admit, you're better than I thought you'd be," Lila smirked back

"Why? What are you getting out of it?"

"Currently? Nothing, what I've been _trying_ to get out of it is a mate, a _partner_ ,"

"A husband?"

"Or a wife, just... _someone_ to give me what I want,"

"A tax break?"

"A CHILD! All this time, I've been searching for someone powerfull enough to create powerfull children with me," she huffed back

"And you think that's me?" Stiles replied skeptically

"I KNOW it is, you're powerfull Stiles, I listened in to what Dr. Clearwater told you, Markos was sure interested in you and he's never set his sights on anyone before, you're the one I've been looking for, I know it,"

"Well I have some bad news for you, I don't marry stalkers- OR people I don't even know,"

Lila tsked quietly, giving her head a slow shake as she stepped closer, a grin curling over her face

"I'm afraid you don't have much choice... _Meezackslaw_ ,"

Stiles blinked in confusion, opening his mouth to speak but being silenced by Lila's voice

"Surprised? That's right, I know your true name, and no faery- no matter HOW powerfull they are, can resist the command of their real name! So come to me and be my husband _Meezackslaw_!!"

Stiles stood stock still, licking his lips and wrinkling his nose

"Yeah..... that's not my name,"

Lila blinked, her face falling from cocky to confused and slightly terrified in a matter of seconds

"Wait... what?"

"That word you're saying? That's not my name,"

"But that- that's what you wrote down at the clinic! Did you lie!?"

"No, I wrote down my name, you're just butchering the pronunciation so much that it doesn't apply,"

Lila's face drained of all color, expression suddenly turning uncertain and timid

"...Miizeekslaw?"

"No,"

".....Mizakslaw?"

"Nuh-uh,"

"..... Maezeekslaw?"

" _Aaaaa_ , WRONG! Three strikes, you're out- four, actually,"

And if Lila didn't look concerned before, she certainly did now

"No matter! If I can't compel you to come with me then I'll simply take you by force! Ghillie Dhu may be incredibly sensitive but they're practically useless in a fight!"

Stiles wasn't sure how the people at the club weren't noticing any of this, but it probably had something to do with faery magic, he was willing to bet she was an illusionist of some sort, Holly HAD mentioned something about Glamouring...

The woman charged at him, her nails shifted into claws as she reached out for him, but luckily- thanks to spending so much time in life or death situations- he managed to avoid it by ducking under her hand and grabbing her hair

Lila screeched, tearing away and leaving a small chunk of her dark locks in his hand

Locks that were oddly wet... they didn't feel like hair either, they felt more like...

"Seaweed... you're a nixie,"

"Perceptive AND knowledgeable I see," she huffed back

"So that's why you always lure your victims to the club, nixies are attracted to music and dancing, and with a nixie's natural ability of seduction luring other Fae Folk has been easy,"

"'Victim' is such a harsh word, they're just failed potential,"

"Yeah well the only potential that's going to be failing today is going to be your potential to get out of here unscathed,"

Ok, maybe that wasn't the BEST comeback, but it was decent enough

Decent enough, in fact, that Lila didn't even say anything in return, she just lunged forward again, and although Stiles tried to dodge, he wasn't quite fast enough

He squeezed his eyes shut, holding his hands out in front of him defensively, and waited for the impact

But it never happened

Instead there was a loud crash and a scream, causing Stiles to open his eyes and stare at the effects of what had happened

Lila had been pushed no less than two yards away and crashed into a wall, successfully breaking whatever illusion she had over the club

The crowd had started to disperse, screams and cries echoing over the music as everyone raced towards the nearest exits, and it was only then that Stiles finally heard it

_**"STILES!!** _

Sure enough, turning around, he saw Derek fighting his way through the crowd, finally managing to arrive at the faery's side

"About time Big Guy,"

"I got held up, but I heard everything,"

"Yeah? And did you happen to see what the hell just happened?"

"You mean you shoving her through that wall?"

Stiles blinked, mouth falling open with surprise as he turned his attention back up to Derek

"Wait you mean- ... I did that?"

"You didn't know?" the wolf frowned skeptically

Stiles would have retorted with something offended and sarcastic, but he didn't get the chance, Lila was standing up... and shapeshifting...

Her skin and hair were starting to take on a green hue, water dripping off of her as her teeth grew into rows of tiny sharp fangs, eyes turning yellow and almost reptilian and webbing growing out between her fingers as a loud, inhuman screech pushed out of her lungs

"I've got this," Derek insisted, rushing past Stiles before the Ghillie Dhu even had a chance to slow him down

"Derek wait!" Stiles shouted after him, sprinting towards the werewolf

He watched for a few moments as the werewolf and the nixie fought, a blur of claws and skin and motion

Stiles needed to do something, he just... he had to do SOMETHING...

He was sick of letting people fight his battles for him, but what could he do?

He still had virtually no idea how to use his powers, the fact that he had managed to protect himself from Lila's last attack was a fluke and he knew if he just ran in head first he would only cause more problems for Derek in the long run...

He needed to figure out how to win this battle with his head...

"Nixies, nixies... what the hell have I read about nixies!?"

There was just such little information about them out there, and what few things he _had_ read about them had been mostly about their appearances and powers, not about how to fight them

Although.... he did remember reading something once about how to protect yourself against them

Supposedly, the only way to kill a nixie is by calling their name....

"Lila!!" he shouted

The nixie looked up, distracting her long enough for Derek to get the upper hand, but it wasn't enough, the fight was still going on

Like Stiles, she must be going by a nickname

Stiles cursed under his breath

How the hell was he supposed to figure out what her real name was!?

He could feel something scratching against the back of his mind, something he knew he needed, intuition was his best power right?

So he just needed to focus on it and figure out what it was trying to tell him

With a deep, deep breath, he closed his eyes and forced himself to focus, shushing his mind and trying to concentrate on the nagging feeling in the back of his mind

_Lillian-_

No... no that wasn't quite right...

_Lillianna...._

But THAT was

"Lillianna!!"

Lila's head jerked up, eyes wide as she stared at Stiles

"Lillianna.... put your hands behind your back,"

The nixie hissed, but her arms were bound behind her back in less than a second

Stiles shuddered, letting out a breath and running his fingers through his hair

Well, looks like he owed Markos an apology....

 

~+~

 

"So what's going to happen to her now?"

"That isn't up to me, it's up to the town's Guardians," Holly replied as she shut the car door, Lila glaring at them through the window

"Town Guardians?" Stiles asked in confusion

"That's right, every town has Guardians who protect it, ofcourse who and what they are vary from town to town but a good example is .. the Hales, they were the Guardians of Beacon Hills, once they died that responsibility fell to someone else, but it's been in limbo for years now with how many people keep leaving, losing powers, going dark, dieing... etc etc...."

Stiles turned his attention towards Derek, a slight smile on his face as he watched the werewolf help the previously kidnapped faeries out of the cabin they had been held in

After getting Lila under control Stiles had managed to find out where her victims were being kept and lead them there, using his magic to unlock the doors and call Holly

"I don't think it'll be in limbo too much longer," he said with a slight smile, attention turning back to the other faery

"I've been meaning to ask you by the way, you said a few days ago that researchers were hard to come by... what exactly is required to apply for that?"

Holly gave a slight smirk, opening the driver's side door

"I'll email you about it, I have a feeling you'd be perfect for it," she said, giving him a wave and one last farewell before climbing into the car and driving off

He smiled fondly, turning to start walking back towards Derek, only to find himself soon smothered by a tight, suffocating hug

"You've rescued us!!! Thank you, thank you!!"

Stiles winced, gently patting the faery's back as he glanced over Markos' shoulder at a snickering Derek

"Yeaaahhh... just uh.. glad to see you're ok,"

Markos slowly stepped back, a bright, excited smile on his face

"More than ok! As a matter of fact, I've met the woman I'm going to marry!"

Oh lord...

"Daisy!" the Oak Faery shouted over his shoulder, waving towards a short girl with pink hair as she eagerly rushed over to him and slammed into him

"Stiles! Meet Daisy, my bride! She's a Rose Faery, she lives in Marietta, she owns a bookstore-"

"That.... that's really nice, but um... I have to go.... talk to Derek, and I'll see you later," he said quickly, not giving the man any time to protest before taking off

He may feel slightly bad about internally blaming Markos for stalking him all this time but it didn't mean he had the patience to stand there and listen to all of that

"You ok?"

He glanced up at Derek, a slight smile on his face as he wrapped an arm around the wolf's waist

"Yeah... I'm good actually, I'm really good,"

"Glad to hear it, think you're up for some diner food? There's no way in hell I have the energy to go home and cook at this point,"

"Fine by me, but I insist on trying your cooking tommorrow,"

Derek let out a slight laugh, nodding as he wrapped an arm around Stiles in return

"You will, I promise,"

 

~+~

 

"Oh no....."

Derek glanced up from the cutting board, color draining out of his face as he turned to look at Stiles

"What?"

"There's a box on the porch, think it could be from Lila?"

The wolf let out a sigh of releif, shaking his head and turning back to the food

"No no, I ordered something,"

"Oh- you... you _ordered_ something? Like... from the internet?" Stiles snorted in surprise, opening the front door to retrieve the box

"Yes Stiles, from the internet, I'm not as hopeless as you think," the wolf huffed back

"Hey, YOU'RE the one who didn't know what Google was in freaking _2012_ ," Stiles retorted, kicking the door shut behind him and setting the box on the counter

Derek just rolled his eyes, shaking his head and handing Stiles a box-cutter

"Go on and open it ok?"

Normally Stiles would have said something snarky and told Derek to open it himself, but he was in a good mood and besides that, he was curious to see what the hell _Derek Hale_ had ordered off of the internet

The box opened easily, and once it did, Stiles was left staring in... confusion

"Derek... what is all of this?"

"Turns out there are multiple websites dedicated to personalizing stuff so... I got you a keychain,"

"A keychain" was putting it mildly

Stiles was staring at an entire _box_ full of crap all featuring his name scrawled across them

A keychain, a pen, a magnet, a mug.....

It was a little ridiculous but it was ADORABLY ridiculous

It was the nicest ridiculous thing anyone had ever done for him...

He swallowed tightly, moving around to the other side of the counter and wrapping his arms around Derek's neck, tugging him down and pressing a greatfull, loving kiss on his lips

Derek was stunned for a moment, but before too long he allowed his eyes to close, arms wrapping around Stiles' back as he tugged him closer and returned the kiss

It lasted for a few moments, neither of them quite ready to let go, neither really sure what would happen when it ended, but eventually, they broke apart, both a little red-faced, a little flustered, and a little over the moon

"So... when we go back to Beacon Hills I'll be moving in somewhere new," Derek noted, licking his lips

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I... can't really go back to the loft but.... I was thinking, maybe I should get a two bedroom,"

"You could," Stiles noted, hugging him a little bit closer and smirking

" _Oooooor_.... you could get a one bedroom and a king sized mattress,"

"California King," Derek grinned, giving Stiles another soft kiss

"Ohhh my new boyfreind's a big spender huh?"

"And my new boyfreind is a rare and powerfull faery, it's a good day for us both,"

"A great day for us both," Stiles replied softly, swaying against him and smiling more happily than he had in years

"And don't worry," Derek added a second later, smirking down at the faery

"I'm sure with all that power atleast _one_ of our kids will be a faery,"

Stiles chuckled, shaking his head

"Yeah..... you are just kidding about 'kids sharing our powers' thing... right?"

Derek just purred, nuzzling into Stiles' neck again

"...Right Derek?"

"Ah I'd better take the sauce off the stove..."

"Derek!?"


End file.
